Moderation: Eva E. Wille
Nearly two years ago, the 150th anniversary of a woman receiving a doctorate based on a chemical dissertation was celebrated. This doctorate was awarded to Lydia Sesemann (1845–1925) by the University of Zurich. At that time, the University of Zurich was a Dr. for women eager to study who had been denied academic training elsewhere. Among them were Rachel Lloyd from the USA, Olga Wohlbrück from Germany, Geertruida W.P. van Maarseveen from the Netherlands, and Edith E. Humphrey from Great Britain. They studied and conducted research at the Swiss Federal Polytechnic (now the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology) or at the University of Zurich. In all cases, the doctorate was awarded by the university. This lecture will present the lives and work of these women and explore the question of why so many foreign female students came to Switzerland, but so few Swiss female students.
Before the lecture , there will be a five-minute start-up introduction. Dr. Jonas Schubert from DERMAPURGE ( www.dermapurge.com ) will show you innovative solutions for skin cleansing from hazardous substances for occupational safety.
Moderator: Wolfgang Gerhartz
Have you ever held Runge's book , *The Formative Drive of Substances*, in your hands? You will be impressed by the images, some of which even evoke images of nature. Yet, in essence, they are nothing more than the product of a chemical reaction in which different solutions were dripped onto blotting paper. With this, Runge developed a precursor to chromatography . He was also interested in the question of whether, analogous to the vital force (vis vitalis), a force of nature lay behind these images. In the lecture, you will have the opportunity to enjoy some photographs from the original edition housed in Rostock, as well as learn about Runge's life, his significant discoveries (caffeine, quinine, aniline, carbolic acid, pyrrole), and hear passages from his "Letters on Domestic Economy."
Moderation: Hans-Uwe von Grabowski
In the lectures on organic chemistry, first and second order nucleophilic substitution reactions are discussed. If second order substitution takes place at a carbon atom that is a stereogenic center, the configuration is reversed, which is often described as the flipping of an umbrella. This phenomenon has entered the literature as the Walden reversal because it was first described by the scholar Paul Walden. His main field of work was physical chemistry, however, and he is sometimes even celebrated as the father of ionic liquids. But the name Walden can also be found in the history of chemistry , although he concealed his origins from a Latvian peasant family and presented himself as a Baltic German. In addition to an appreciation of his achievements in chemistry and a critical examination of his historical contributions, the biography of this chemist is presented, who experienced Tsarist Russia, briefly independent Latvia, Germany under the Weimar Republic and National Socialism, and finally the Federal Republic of Germany.
Moderation: Uwe von Grabowski
The lecture will pay particular attention to the life and work of the lesser-known chemist Meyer. The focus of the presentation will be on the individual stages on Meyer's path to the discovery of periodicity. His drafts of (partly unpublished) classification systems from the years 1864, 1868 and 1869 to 1872 will be discussed.
This page has been machine translated. If you have any feedback or comments please feel free to contact us. 
last modified: 11.12.2025 10:01 H from W.Gerhartz
